Reviewed by: Pete Barber
Genre: Mystery
Approximate word count: 15-20,000 words
Availability
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Barbara Venkataraman is an attorney and mediator specializing in family law and debt collection.
She is the author of The Fight for Magicallus, a children's fantasy; a humorous short story entitled If You'd Just Listened to Me in the First Place; and two books of humorous essays: I'm Not Talking about You, Of Course and A Trip to the Hardware Store & Other Calamities, which are part of the Quirky Essays for Quirky People series. Both books of humorous essays won the prestigious "Indie Book of the Day" award.
Description:
When Jamie Quinn’s mom dies of cancer, the family-law attorney quits work and tries to make sense of her life. But when her autistic nephew, Adam, becomes the prime suspect in a murder, she’s forced to engage the world again in order to prove his innocence.
Appraisal:
I don’t
often read mysteries, but variety is the spice of life, and this book’s Amazon
sample was appealing. I particularly enjoyed the author’s light and engaging
writing style.
This is a
short “taster” novelette, and as such it’s main job is to introduce Jamie
Quinn--that part of the mission was well accomplished. Written in first person,
Jamie occasionally breaks the fourth wall (speaks directly to the reader), and
the technique worked—it got me rooting for her from the very beginning of the
story.
The story
itself rolled along nicely. I also enjoyed the politically-incorrect private
detective, Duke. I suspect he’ll be coming along for the series, too.
The only
problem I had was one of confusion. There were a lot of character names, and
they blurred together somewhat for me, so that, or maybe because of that, I
didn’t engage with any of the suspects. At one point even the author got a name
confused, so I wasn’t alone. Also, Adam seemed such an unlikely murderer, that
I questioned the DA’s logic; no matter how politically driven he was, I doubt
he’d try to accuse a boy suffering from Asperger’s Syndrome of a murder with a
blunt instrument.
All in all,
though, a fast, light, fun read.
Format/Typo Issues:
I read on
Kindle and it was double spaced, which kinda wore my page-turning finger thin.
Rating: **** Four stars
2 comments:
I also enjoyed this book. I listened to the audio version, so I didn't have any trouble keeping the characters straight. But I can see how it might be a large cast for such a small book.
Thanks for dropping by, nrlymyrtl. I like the goats--we have two Nigerian Dwarfs.
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